Chicago

perfection

In the OT perfection is ascribed to God (Job 37: 16) and in the NT to persons, signifying maturity (1 Cor. 2: 6). The command in the Sermon on the Mount to be perfect (Matt. 5: 48) is changed in Luke 6: 36 to ‘be merciful’. In Matthew it is part of the new ethic of the kingdom, such as non‐retaliation, in which the conditions
of the kingdom are set out as ideals.